News

Here’s the latest news from our Instagram account.

DMWTD has a Dirty Little Secret and we are pretty excited. This Saturday, November 1st, our 3rd annual Dirty Little Secret 7k trail race is being shared with 125 trail runners, 30 volunteers, and our friends and families. We have amazing prizes from Patagonia (@patagoniatoronto) and Salomon (@salomonrunning). We have the after race BBQ with refreshments from Sapsucker (@sipsapsucker) & more. The woods and trails are in prime fall colours and DMWTD is getting the trails ready. The race is full but there is a waitlist which we will activate tomorrow. We anticipate a few spots will be available. To join the waitlist please email us at info@dontmesswiththedon.ca. If you are unable to make the race and are already registered then please email us today so we can free up those spots. The shirts are out for viewing (see photos) and if you haven't sent in your donation for your shirt, please do (or if you would just like to donate, that's cool too). $20 helps us cover the cost of the shirt. Link for donations found in our profile. Race starts at 10 am sharp, bib and shirt pick up opens at 9:15. Race starts at the Loblaws trailhead, 11 Redway Road. All DMWTD programs and events are free all the time to everyone. ❤️ #dirtylittlesecret #donvalley #dontmesswiththedon #patagonia #patagoniatoronto #runningtheravines #salomon #salomonrunning #salomontoronto #sapsucker #trailrunning
Pancakes 🥞 , Pumpkins 🎃 and People 🦹‍♀️ . A little bit a spice, a little bit of scary 👻 and some of our best friends 🫂 . DWMTD loves doing our annual pumpkin carving with our Saturdays at the Container program. The kids mixed some cinnamon 🤏 into the flapjacks while we sliced apples 🍎 for the top. Some awesome pumpkin 🎃 art and imagination today made for a great community gathering. Thank you to everyone who made our Hallowe'en 👻 special and all the kids who made us smile 😊 . DMWTD has a few events coming up including next Saturday's Dirty Little Secret 🤫 Trail Race (waitlist only). We will be running off all the candy 🍬 and pancakes 🥞 . Coming up after that we have a couple clean ups 🧹 (TBA) and we will be doing holiday wreaths from invasives with Fjallraven closer to the holidays. Watch for that one, it fills really fast. ❤️ DMWTD - A registered Canadian Charity #autumnaesthetic #communityengagement #cricketlikespancakesnotpumpkins #dontmesswiththedon #pancakebreakfast #pumpkincarving #saturdaysatthecontainer
Trail building time - We need help - like a lot of help! Our Dirty Little Secret trail race is coming up on November Ist and we have a trail problem. A certain construction project has blocked the trail system and we are going to build around it. We have a solution that hopefully will reconnect the flats for at least this fall. It could get a little muddy so please wear boots 🥾 though we have dozens of pairs of rubber boots available to borrow. We have shovels 🪏 and other tools but we need a bunch of help. We are meeting at our container hub at the Loblaws Trailhead at 11 Redway Rd. at 4 pm on Thursday Oct 30th and then heading down to the river 🌊 🐟 . We will aim to order pizza 🍕 for after as a thank you. You can add your name to the list in the link in our profile. This could get interesting. ❤️ DMWTD
Procter & Gamble x Don't Mess with the Don - October 23, 2025 - Stewardship #amazingvolunteers #dontmesswiththedon #donvalley #nature #natureinthecity #naturelover #pggivesback #stewardship #toronto #volunteering #volunteeringintoronto
🎃 Pumpkin 🎃 carving with DMWTD! October 25th at 10 am at our container hub at the Loblaws Trailhead at 11 Redway Rd. Every fall the valley is full of bright oranges, reds and yellows 🍁 🍃 🍂 and every fall we delight in hosting our pumpkin carving. We have 20 awesome pumpkins from Prince Edward County and all the tools to make a scary (or adorable) jack-o-lantern. We will be cooking up Apple 🍎 and Cinnamon Pancakes with maple 🍁 syrup for a yummy 😋 treat for everyone. We ask that this is for families with children 12 and under and one pumpkin per family with all the pancakes you can eat. 20 Spots available Register at the link in our profile. 👻 DMWTD - All DMWTD programs are free all the time.
DMWTD needs volunteers for our Dirty Little Secret Trail Race on November 1st. The race 🏃‍♂️ starts and finishes at our container hub at the Loblaws trailhead. Volunteering is from 9 am to 12:30 and includes lunch. 99.9% of DMWTD programming is run by awesome 🤩 volunteers and that is why our events are so great. Volunteers give so much and add so much to our events. We need people to help with registration, on course marshalling and the yummy BBQ 🍔. You can register through this link. High School students can earn hours. All volunteers receive a free race shirt 👕 or a shirt from one of our programs - like our amazing new Paddle and Protect 🌊 shirt which we really haven't released yet. Link found in our profile. Registration continues for the race and we are about 50% full already in just 48 hours. The race is free and so is the BBQ post race. Here is the race registration link. Confirmation emails will go out next week Link also in our profile. See you on the trails and the fall colours will be brilliant. 🍁 🍃 🍂 ❤️ DMWTD - A registered Canadian Charity
We have another Dirty Little Secret to Share. November 1st - Year 3 of our Dirty Little Secret Trail Race. It's in the Don, it has an awesome post race BBQ, the race supports our charity's work, you get to run awesome single track in Toronto in the fall and that is all FREE. We have individual and team entries (That is so cool DMWTD). Teams can be Adult/Child 14 and under or Adult/Adult. The course this year will be a bit different due the construction but still beautiful and about 7k. You can pre-order shirts on the form. Race shirts are $20 to cover our costs Register in the link in pur profile - 125 spots only
Milkweed pods and seeds needed. DMWTD has large areas we steward that are devoid of precious Milkweed. Areas where we have removed invasive Dog Strangling Vine and are now ready for the Monarch Butterfly's best friend- Milkweed. If you have any excess from your garden we would love them and the Monarchs will love you. Drop off in East York is preferred but we can also pick up in East York or Central Toronto/Downtown. Please do not remove any from public spaces. You can contact us at our e-mail found in our profile. Thank you so much from DMWTD and all the fluttering things 🦋
By land 🗺️ or by sea 🌊 , We are DMWTD. Yesterday DMWTD was in two places at once. We were out with our partners - Scarborough Zero Waste (@scarboroughzerowaste), U of T One Health, Toronto Nature Stewards (@torontonaturestewards), Curran Hall Community Association and Scarborough Environmental Association (@scarb.env.asc) cleaning up Highland Creek. We have done this cleanup before and we have always enjoyed the high impact collaboration brings. Thank you so much to everyone who helped. At the same time, DMWTD's Paddle & Protect Program was out on the water for our second last paddle and garbage clean up of 2025 (😢). We managed to clean some really small stuff - thousands of tiny plastics from the beaches and some huge stuff - photo speaks for itself 🛞. Year to date 2025: Clean up # 71 2495 bags of trash 48,460 pounds of garbage including 1 ATM, 41 bikes, motorcycle frame and 10 mattresses, 83 tires, 22 propane tanks, an electric guitar, and tens of thousands of disposable wipes that should not be tangled beside nor in a beautiful river in Toronto. Thank you. ❤️ DMWTD - A registered Canadian Charity - Supported solely by grants and donations 📸 Photos 10 & 13 taken by Lina T. 📸 Photos 17 & 20 taken by Mark Graham (@heymarkgraham)
Highland Creek Cleanup - October 5th, 2025
Our next cleanup 🧹 has been scheduled for Sunday October 5th! Along with Toronto Nature Stewards (@torontonaturestewards), Curran Hall Community and the Scarborough Environmental Association (@scarb.env.asc), we’re going to Highland Creek/ Morningside Park in Scarborough to support Scarborough Zero Waste’s (@scarboroughzerowaste) cleanup of the park and the creeks banks. We’ll be meeting at Picnic Area 1A (next to the west parking lot) at 10am. This’ll be a special cleanup, the west side of the park has concerning amount of litter and the cleanup will be along a notable salmon run route 🐟. More info, including registration, can be found in the bio. We’ll have all the supplies needed including gloves 🧤, bags, picker and awesome folks. More info in the link in our profile. ❤️ DMWTD - a registered Canadian charity
The 2025 Paddle & Protect kayaking season is drawing to a close 😭. October 12th is our last paddle of the year and just a reminder that this weekend DMWTD will be out on the water as part of the Art 🖼️ Project - A Lake Story. This means that there will not be a P & P kayaking programthis Sunday. This past weekend was a mixed bag on the water with Saturday's program unfortunately being cancelled due to very high winds 💨 but Sunday was beautiful day on the water. Our paddlers collected a ton of trash including the biggest tire 🛞 we have ever pulled out of the lake. Amazing job by our volunteers. Year to date 2025: Clean up # 68 2455 bags of trash 47,660 pounds of garbage including 1 ATM, 41 bikes, motorcycle frame and 10 mattresses, 78 tires, 22 propane tanks, an electric guitar, and tens of thousands of disposable wipes that should not be tangled beside nor in a beautiful river in Toronto. Thank you. ❤️ DMWTD - A registered Canadian Charity - Supported solely by grants and donations 📸 Photos 9 & 10 taken by Kim Bi
Ghost 👻 Garbage. Rising from the dumpsters left open. Zombie 🧟 plastics floating free to find a new resting spot in our ravines and valleys. Yesterday, 20+ volunteers collected over 750 pounds of those ghosts and put them back in the dumpsters and closed the lids. DMWTD estimates that of the nearly 400,000 pounds of trash we have collected that over 30% of that is this type of trash. Building 🏙️ after building with overflowing dumpsters or ones left open contributing a steady stream of plastics to our precious green spaces. Almost always, the dumpsters are located at the rear of these buildings on edge of the valley. Bylaw enforcement has been tried but is impractical and we have tried to engage property management to secure the dumpsters but again with very limited success. The one building that contributed nearly all the trash we cleaned yesterday had two open bins, two unlocked and trash everywhere around the bins. We need properly secured dumpsters with attention to the surrounding area. Thank you to all our great and hard working volunteers. After the clean up we joined our mtn biking program for a yumbo BBQ 🍔 and ice cream 🍦 lunch. On another note, we unfortunately had to cancel our Kayaking Program yesterday at Cherry Beach and in Biidaasige Park. The wind was very strong at 20 kms/hr with gusts to more than 35 kms 💨 . We are very sorry but the conditions were unsafe. Year to date 2025: Clean up # 67 2445 bags of trash 47,460 pounds of garbage including 1 ATM, 41 bikes, motorcycle frame and 10 mattresses, 77 tires, 22 propane tanks, an electric guitar, and tens of thousands of disposable wipes that should not be tangled beside nor in a beautiful river in Toronto. Thank you. ❤️ DMWTD - A registered Canadian Charity #amazingvolunteers #communityengagement #communityimpact #dontlitter #dontmesswiththedon #donvalley #garbagecleanup #makeadifference #toronto #trashcleanup #volunteering #volunteeringintoronto
Pop UP Clean UP. It has been some time since our last pop-up cleanup but this Saturday at 10 am we are heading out on the Ridge Trail to cleanup a huge amount of plastics and trash. It gets better than that because after we are having a BBQ 🍔 to celebrate the volunteers and the coming of the fall colours to our beautiful Don Valley 🍁 . We are meeting at our container hub at 11 Redway Rd at 10 am. We have everything you need to save the planet 🌎 including gloves 🧤 , bags, pickers and good souls to help. Drinks at the ready and BBQ to follow. No need to register. ❤️ DMWTD - a registered Canadian Charity
17 youth are running 🏃🏼‍♀️ through the woods and that is so cool. Season 8 of our Youth Trail Running clinics for 11-14 has begun and it twas a perfect day. The trails are a great place for a run and to learn more about the ecosystem of the Don Valley and Toronto's Ravines. Thank you to our coaches and volunteers as well as the hard working kids in our program. Thank you to Salomon (@salomonrunning) for once again supporting this amazing program. All DMWTD programs are always free all the time to everyone. ❤️ DMWTD - a registered Canadian Charity 📸 Photos by @spsymes
Really looking forward to a great event with Earth Rangers (@earth_rangers) 📢 You’re Invited: Hands-On in the Don with Earth Rangers! 🗓️ Friday, September 26, 2025 ⏰1 2–3:30 30 PM 📍 11 Redway Road (Loblaw’s/Crothers Woods Parking Lot) Looking for something awesome to do on your day off? Join @er.teens, @tangerinebank, and @dont_mess_with_the_don for a fun, hands- on teen event where you can help protect the planet (and earn volunteer hours while you’re at it)! You’ll be: 🌿 Removing invasive plants 🪏 Digging up root systems 🌱 Planting native trees and shrubs 🌸 Seeding pollinator gardens 🌭 Enjoying a free BBQ lunch 🦉 Meeting Earth Rangers’ Animal Ambassadors ✅ Earning volunteer hours This event is FREE, open to youth 13–18 (families welcome), and runs rain or shine – so dress for the weather and come ready to get your hands dirty! Register now at the link in our profile (HandsOnInTheDonWithER.eventbrite.ca) 📸 Graphic & Photo courtesy of @earth_rangers
Seed pods from DSV, burrs from Burdock and berries from Buckthorn. No, not ingredients for a potion or spell, rather next year's invasive species. DMWTD has been bagging and cooking all those to give our native plants a better chance next year. Hundreds of bags full, millions of wannabe invasive plants kept from germinating. Mondays at 5 pm at Sunnybrook Park parking lot # 3, we are pulling Buckthorn and bagging the berries. Over 8,000 trees pulled and countless berries. Wednesdays at 5 pm at our container hub at 11 Redway Rd. we are tackling Teasel, DSV, Burdock and many more and planting native plants in their place. The photos attached show over 65 bags of seeds from the last couple weeks. Join the fight and get dirty. ❤️ DMWTTD - A registered Canadian Charity
🖼️ ART 🖼️ from Invasives with Patagonia (@patagoniatoronto) and DMWTD On Wednesday evening, DMWTD visited our great friends at Patagonia Toronto on King Street West and together we hosted a warm and crafty gathering of awesome folk who created Fall Wreaths from invasive Buckthorn and found materials. The results were stunning. Thank you so much to Jenn, Bradley and all the staff at Patagonia. Patagonia has supported DMWTD since our earliest days with gear, volunteers, financial support and partnerships like this one. This was our fourth go at wreaths this year and we have had so much fun each time. The fabulous wreaths speak for themselves. Buckthorn is a highly invasive tree that DMWTD has been removing for many years (> 40,000 removed) and our Project Buckthorn in Sunnybrook starts its fall season this Monday at 5 pm. Please come out if you can and help restore our forests as well as learn all about native and invasive plants and trees. We have everything including expert stewards and yummy snacks. Parking lot 3. ❤️ DMWTD - A registered Canadian Charity 📸 Photos by Lawrence
TetraPak Canada x Don't Mess with the Don Paddle & Protect - September 12th, 2025
Home Depot Canada x Don't Mess with the Don Stewardship - September 10th, 2025